Newport News Traffic Lawyer

In Newport News traffic offenses can be serious. They can rise to a level of seriousness where they become criminal charges. A Newport News traffic lawyer can represent you in traffic cases and sometimes they can do so even without your appearance. If you have been accused of a traffic violation whether it be reckless driving or a simple speeding ticket, call today and schedule a free consultation with a Newport News traffic lawyer.

Traffic Offenses

In Newport News an example of a minor traffic offense is driving with one headlight out or running a stop sign. An example of a major traffic offense is a hit and run or reckless driving.

Traffic Infractions

Traffic infractions are not punishable by jail time and they only go towards affecting your driving record. This results in demerit points which go away eventually but do not have significant long-term effects.

Traffic Misdemeanors and Felonies

Misdemeanors and felonies are criminal charges. A conviction of either one results in a permanent criminal record, which will always appear on criminal background checks and may follow somebody for the rest of their life in a very negative manner. Penalties are also much harsher, as they do include jail time for misdemeanors and prison time for felonies as well as higher fines than are imposed on a traffic infraction.

The conviction not only affects the criminal record, but also like a traffic infraction, affects the driving record. Misdemeanor and felony convictions on driving records will remain on the driving record for a longer period of time than simple infractions do.

The Role of a Newport News Traffic Lawyer

In Newport News, for a serious traffic case an attorney’s role is to help you do anything possible to get a good, positive result for your case. A Newport News traffic attorney does this through a whole variety of ways. They can help you go through all the evidence to figure out what is relevant and what is helpful and then can properly introduce this evidence at your trial.

A traffic lawyer in Newport News can also provide a good cross examination of the police officer involved which sometimes can go towards having the ticket dismissed on technicalities based on what the officer is saying.

Your Newport News traffic lawyer can also cast reasonable doubt on the facts of the case to get the charges reduced or dismissed and they can negotiate for lesser penalties if neither of the other two options are a possibility.

Consequences of Traffic Convictions

Having a criminal conviction on your record can have a number of impacts on your life. If someone applies for a job and the application asks if they have ever been convicted of a crime, the answer will always have to be yes. You have to explain this conviction over and over every time they apply for a job that has that question.

If they are trying to get security clearances then it will appear on background checks. If they are trying to apply for school it will appear when the school does the background check.

Future opportunities can be impacted even when someone is not trying to apply for a job or school. Sometimes it will be difficult to obtain housing if you have a criminal record as well as things like student loans.

Newport News Traffic Lawyers Can Help Out-of-State Drivers

A traffic lawyer in Newport News can be extremely helpful to an out of state driver; this is because otherwise, if an out of state driver wants to fight their traffic ticket, they will have to physically come back to Newport News to go to court.

This can obviously be not only an inconvenience, but can also be very costly, whereas having a local Newport News traffic lawyer gives you somebody who can appear for you who would probably do a much better job of fighting the charges than you would.

Attorneys have much more experience than you hopefully and it can in the long term result in better results as well as cheaper results. The cost of a Newport News traffic lawyer is short term, whereas the effects of a conviction can be a nuisance for a long period of time.

A Newport News Traffic Lawyer

A Newport News traffic lawyer can help you if your driving privileges are jeopardized due to a suspended license from having too many demerit points accumulated. A traffic attorney is able to guide you through the process of petitioning the court for a restricted driver’s license.

Restricted driver’s licenses are sometimes issued to people who have their license suspended to allow them to go to a limited set of places such as schools, work and religious services. It is important to contact a Newport News traffic attorney as soon as possible so that your driving privileges are not compromised for more time than is necessary.